Man arrives for date’ to find the police in wait

Friday

Nov 27, 2009 at 12:01 AMNov 27, 2009 at 10:01 PM

Green police arrested a Cuyahoga Falls man, accusing him of stealing a woman's cell phone and using it to harass and stalk her.

Lori Monsewicz

When a Barberton woman couldn’t find her cell phone after a night of dancing, she figured it was lost — until she started getting calls from a man demanding a date and telling her he would return the phone.

Summit County sheriff’s deputies arrested the man Tuesday in a Green restaurant, accusing him of stalking the woman.

Sgt. Scott Cottle of the sheriff’s department said the woman told deputies in Coventry Township on Monday that her cell phone had been stolen, and that an unknown man was sending text messages to her new phone demanding a romantic meeting. The man had promised that he would return the phone then.

Cottle said the man also insisted that she bring no one with her, causing the woman extra concern.

Deputies waited at Panera Bread in Green, where the man came Tuesday thinking he was meeting the woman for a date, Cottle said.

The man — Randy Willgues, 32, of Cuyahoga Falls — began “fighting with deputies in an effort to flee,” he said.

But they were able to arrest him.

Willgues was booked into the Summit County Jail on charges of receiving stolen property, menacing by stalking and resisting arrest.